Building Strong Market Access Teams

A rock and a hard place. It’s not a comfortable spot to be, but increasingly, that’s where the pharmaceutical industry finds itself.

Politicians in several European markets unilaterally cut prices for prescription medicines last year, while some tabled legislation to end price-setting freedoms for the industry. And the issue is expected to go beyond European borders, as more and more payers concerned with threadbare finances search for ways to stretch public finances.

As the industry finds itself increasingly cornered by such restrictions, it does so against payers’ increasingly sophisticated information networks used to assess healthcare technologies, set standards and grades innovation.

How is the industry responding? Market access teams—once a business support function—are now the focus of rapid expansion as companies scramble to meet new demands and the challenges presented by the cross-functional nature of the work.

The redefining of market access may be a natural response by the industry—but it is also creating hurdles and bottlenecks, in filling roles with the right people and ensuring channels are created so people can talk to each other across functions and between the affiliates and HQ.

In Building Strong Market Access Teams, FirstWord charts a path through the fast-changing market access landscape by examining the current European payer mood, the end of free price-setting in two important markets and issues facing market access recruitment and the cross-functional nature of the work. Set against detailed case studies and key interviews with leading experts, the report lays out how the industry is responding to increasingly powerful payers, which strategies work best in building effective market access teams and where the industry is headed.

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Key quotes from the report

“Market access is a global strategy with local implementation. It is about pulling together a dossier about the value of a drug with processes that can be continuously improved with input from the marketing people, or key account managers, who are talking to the policy makers.” Hervé Lilliu, vice-president of global market access and pricing, UCB Pharma.

“Our workload increased by 105 percent in 2010 compared to 2009 and we are working on three times as many assignments now [January 2011] as we were at this point in 2010. So it is fair to say demand has risen sharply.” Gareth Lee, principal consultant with market access specialists, RBW Consulting.